Developing Coastwide Monitoring Program for Juvenile Tarpon and Snook to Inform Management and Conservation Strategies in Texas

Accurate determination of species distributions is essential to understanding habitat needs and threats to species of conservation concern.

In Texas, Atlantic tarpon and the snook species complex represent iconic sportfish that are listed as Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the State Wildlife Action Plan. Small changes in juvenile survival can have large effects on recruitment and year-class strength of adult populations; therefore, determining the availability and quality of nursery habitats is key to developing sound conservation strategies for these species.

Unfortunately, our understanding of tarpon and snook nursery habitat requirements in Texas is hindered by a lack of juvenile occurrence data and imperfect detection by limited traditional surveys.

Our overall goal is to develop a monitoring program to track interannual trends in occurrence, abundance, and habitat suitability for juvenile tarpon and snook in Texas to inform conservation plans for these species.

The goal of this project is to conduct juvenile tarpon and snook field surveys across the entire Texas coast and implement environmental DNA (eDNA) assays to identify occupied nursery habitats and key environmental factors influencing their use as nurseries.

Specific objectives are to: 1) expand traditional field surveys to sites along the entire Texas coast encompassing a wide range of environmental and habitat characteristics to identify critical nursery habitats for tarpon and snook, 2) implement cost-effective eDNA assays for detecting juvenile tarpon and snook presence/absence at monitored sites, and 3) apply fish-habitat modeling approaches to identify factors important to site occupancy and habitat quality.

This project represents actionable science needed to inform future restoration and conservation efforts and addresses priority issues and action items identified by end-users and resource managers such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division, Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, and Coastal Conservation Association Texas.